Tombs of the Blind Dead coming to Blu-ray with 3 cuts and 3 commentaries

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Director Amando de Ossorio's 1972 classic Tombs of the Blind Dead (check it out HERE, read Arrow's recommendation HERE) is getting a U.S. Blu-ray release courtesy of Synapse Films later this year, and Synapse president Don May Jr. recently got in contact with the folks at Rue Morgue to share some details on what will be on the disc.

Released in Spain in 1972, the film was whittled down to achieve a PG rating for its U.S. release the following year, and May revealed that not only will both cuts be on the Blu-ray, but Synapse has also created a "hybrid cut" that puts the cut Spanish scenes back into the English-language cut. As May explains, this cut was 

the nightmare I caused for myself. I got the bright idea to do a hybrid version; I said, ‘Why don’t we put the English track over the longer Spanish edition, and where the Spanish one has extra footage and dialogue, we just cut to the Spanish and put subtitles on it.’ So we have the long version mostly in English with 15 or 20 minutes in Spanish, with optional subtitles. I didn’t realize till after I started it that it would be a massive pain in the ass, but we’re doing it. It’ll be interesting for the fans to have the opportunity to see it that way, and it’s weird, because there are scenes in English with just one or two lines of dialogue in Spanish, and you get to see what the people who first put the movie out in the U.S. decided to cut."

Bonus features will include three commentaries, 

one by [historian/author] Troy Howarth and one by Lone Fleming, the star of the film, which is awesome. She sent me an e-mail when she heard we were doing TOMBS, saying, ‘Whatever you need, I’m here!’ so I said, ‘OK, we’ll take you up on that!’ and we sent somebody to Spain to do the commentary. She had a blast, and to get her, after all these decades, to come back and talk about the movie was great. We also have a commentary by Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn, who do the NaschyCast podcast, which is a lot of fun."

At some point in the '70s, a distributor tried to sell Tombs of the Blind Dead as a sequel to Planet of the Apes, releasing it with the title Revenge from Planet Ape. The Revenge from Planet Ape opening will be on the Synapse disc, along with a documentary covering the Spanish zombie genre. Synapse usually tries to put a soundtrack CD in their special edition releases, but since the Blind Dead's soundtrack elements are unavailable Synapse is putting together a heavy metal tribute CD instead.

There’s a band called Hooded Menace whose first few albums were basically love letters to the BLIND DEAD films, so we’ve got a couple of tracks from them. Lee Dorrian from Napalm Death had another band called Cathedral, who did a song called ‘Tombs of the Blind Dead,’ and he’s letting us have that for the CD. And collectors who are into horror soundtracks and limited-edition vinyl will know the band Zoltan, who have done John Carpenter and PHANTASM tribute albums, and they did a record with their own takes on the themes for the four main BLIND DEAD films, so we’re going to have those."

In case you're not familiar with Tombs of the Blind Dead, a synopsis on IMDb goes like this: 

In the 13th century there existed a legion of evil knights known as the Templars, who quested for eternal life by drinking human blood and committing sacrifices. Executed for their unholy deeds, the Templars bodies were left out for the crows to peck out their eyes. Now, in modern day Portugal, a group of people stumble on the Templars abandoned monastery, reviving their rotting corpses to terrorize the land.

It's a cool movie, and it sounds like Synapse is putting together an awesome release for it.